Arctic would be ice-free by 2013

Washington, Dec.15 (ANI): Researchers have predicted a grim prognosis for the Arctics so-called perennial sea ice, given the expanding rate at which global warming is taking place. Wieslaw Maslowski of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, has warned that if temperatures remain the same as they are now, the Arctic would ice-free by the year 2013. The Arctic’s perennial sea ice has been shrinking since the 1980s, reports the National Geographic. Before then, ice filled the whole Arctic Ocean throughout the summer, occupying an area the size of continental United States. But the melt this year brought it to a new low in September, melting an area larger than all of the U.S. states east of the Mississippi River. The new record blew the old record, set in 2005, out of the water, shrinking to just three-quarters the size of that earlier low. The decline in ice growth could increase how much melts in future years, noted John Walsh of the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. Donald Perovich of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers likened the situation to a losing football game. “A comeback is possible, but it’s like the fourth quarter, and we’re down by two touchdowns,” said Perovich. (ANI)